Home Is Where The Heart Is
by xaddieeinstienx
Summary: After a near-death incident involving a student and Rogue's skin, Rogue leaves the X-Men. Seven years later, she's back. It's hard enough being home again...but it's even worse when her teenage crush on Wolverine comes back stronger than ever. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

Libraries are supposed to be quiet. They are supposed to be a place where you can study, finish the piles and piles of homework that you have even though you're nineteen and not technically in school anymore.

They are definitely not supposed to be a place where you are interrupted in the middle of doing said homework by your best friend, who you do love desperately but who really needs to leave you alone so you can finish everything that Storm assigned to you by tomorrow.

"Roguey!" Jubilee cried, spotting me in the middle of the library. It being a Sunday afternoon, I was all alone in the room, sitting at one of the many study tables with my books spread out in front of me. I had just finished with my math homework, and was about to get started on my physics. Of course, it is extremely difficult to study when Jubilee has arrived, dressed as usual in a blinding yellow and being trailed by an unfamiliar girl.

The girl who was trailing Jubilee was maybe seventeen, two years younger than me, and a couple inches shorter. She had pale skin with about twenty-seven thousand freckles, really blue eyes, and hair that was the color of a carrot. I'm not even kidding – her hair was _bright_ orange. I had never seen her before, so I figured she was the new student. Briana Something. Dare, maybe? Dane? Dale? It started with a D.

"Roguey," Jubilee announced, coming to a stop in front of me. "This is Briana Dane."

Dane. I knew it. "Hi," I said. "I'm Rogue."

Briana giggled – a really high-pitched giggle that made me grit my teeth. I didn't want to dislike Briana before I even got to know her, but that giggle sounded like it could break glass. "Is that really your name?" she asked. Her voice matched her giggle – high and pretty annoying.

"Rogue is her mutant name," Jubilee explained. "She just goes by it."

"Oh." Briana laughed again, although I failed to see what was funny. I shot a look at Jubilee. This girl was going to get annoying _really_ fast.

Sorry, Jubilee mouthed behind Briana's back. She gave Briana a dark look. Clearly Jubes didn't like Briana much either. Storm must have made her show Briana around the school. Poor Jubilee. I'd be slitting my wrists by now.

"So what's your mutation?" I asked Briana politely. I figured the best thing to do was make a little conversation and then leave as soon as possible.

Briana giggled _again_. I was coming very close to ripping her vocal cords out. "I'll show you," she said. "Here, give me your hand." Confused – not many mutants used hand-to-hand contact for their powers – I reached out my hand and placed it in hers.

Jubilee gasped. "No, Rogue, don't!"

But it was too late. In a second – no, less than a second – Briana's eyes rolled up in her head, she crumpled to the ground, and a flood of emotions and thoughts and memories came rushing at me. The room started spinning and I felt like I had just drunk about sixty of Logan's beers. I sank to the floor, following Briana. Jubilee was waving her hands in front of my face, trying to get my attention. She had to be screaming something too, but I couldn't hear anything she said. My ears were filled with a mix of unfamiliar voices and Briana's obnoxious laugh. Her memories crept slowly into my field of vision, and I completely blacked out.

I woke up, God knows how much later, in the med bay. Jubilee was hovering over me anxiously, and she squealed – loudly – when my eyes opened. "She's awake!" Jubes yelled, and suddenly I was surrounded by the Professor, Storm, and Hank.

"Jubes…" I groaned. She was being way too loud. Whenever I absorbed someone, I felt like I had a hangover until I put up walls for them. Briana was still bouncing around in my mind. "What the hell happened?" How did I drain Briana? It had been almost a year since I had gained complete control over my powers. Was the control disappearing now? Would I be untouchable again?

Jubilee's smile dropped off her face in a second. "Roguey, I am so, _so_ sorry. I should have told you about Briana."

"Told me what?" I demanded.

The Professor picked up the explanation. "Rogue, Miss Dane has a very powerful and dangerous mutation. She really shouldn't have been let near you without a warning, at least, for both of you." He shot a quick look at Jubilee, who hung her head. "You see, Miss Dane's mutation allows her to make others' mutations…unstable."

"Unstable?" I repeated numbly. What did that mean? And why would the Professor let a girl who made other mutants' powers _unstable_ into a school with about fifty mutants milling around?

Storm hastened to reassure me. "It's not as bad as it sounds. It is a very quick, out-of-control flash that only happens when she touches someone. It…intensified your powers."

"It did _what_?" I was suddenly sitting straight up in bed, and anyone who looked at me might think I was a little bit insane. But I had total reason to be. My _intensified_ powers were dangerous. Lethal. "Briana…she's _okay_, isn't she?"

They all exchanged glances. "She'll be fine, I'm sure," the Professor said soothingly.

"She'll _be fine_?" My voice raised about eight octaves. Oh, my God, I must have put her in a coma or something.

"Rogue, don't worry about it," Storm said. "How are _you_ feeling?"

Me? I hadn't even thought about me yet. "I'm fine."

Hank took over. "Are you still lightheaded?" he asked. "Do you feel faint? Headache? Stomachache? Anything?"

"Um…a little lightheaded, I guess," I replied, doing a mental check of my body. Aside from Briana, who was still running around in my head, I felt basically normal. I had a small headache, but that was it. "I just need to put up blocks around Briana."

The Professor nodded. He was always the one to help me with the walls. "Do you need help, Rogue? Or can you handle it?"

"I can do it," I replied. The walls weren't too difficult to put up. I had about twenty of them in my head, containing the personalities of half of the school. Logan, Professor X, Jubilee, Bobby, Storm, Pete…I had absorbed them all at some point, usually by accident, and they were all stored in my brain. "It shouldn't take too long."

"Good," said the Professor, his mind clearly on other things. "Storm? Hank?" The three adults moved away, leaving only Jubilee by my bedside.

As soon as they were out of hearing distance, I turned to Jubilee. "Jubes, tell me."

She pretended to have no idea what I was talking about. "Tell you what, Roguey?"

"_Jubilee_."

Jubilee looked nervous. "Well…um, Roguey, we don't actually know about Briana. She is in a coma right now. But, um…she might not…come out of it." The last part was said in a whisper.

"Come out of it?" Holy shit. "You mean…I _killed_ her?" No. No, no, no, no, no. This was not possible. I had _control_ over my powers. I didn't drain people anymore unless I wanted to. And Briana had only touched me for a second. That wasn't nearly enough for _death_. Hell, that wasn't even enough for a coma. I've touched Jubes for that long, I've touched Storm for that long, I've touched about a _million_ people for that long and they just got headaches or something. They didn't _die_.

"They don't know." I could barely hear Jubilee. Oh, my God. I killed Briana Dane.

It was sometime around midnight. The only light in my room came from the moon outside my window, but luckily it was enough for me to see by. I crept around the room quietly, choosing items of clothing at random and stuffing them into my trusty green duffel bag. It had been a long time since I used it, but I would need it tonight. I was leaving the mansion.

I couldn't stay here. Not knowing that I had _killed_ someone, even if that person was as annoying as Briana had been. It was too dangerous for everyone else. What if my control slipped? Who would be the next to go? Jubilee? One of the teachers? It wouldn't be Logan, at least, thank God for that – he couldn't die. But everyone else…it was too dangerous for them for me to stay here. And it's not like they would want me here anyway. I was a murderer, for God's sake. I had killed someone. Oh, God, I had killed someone.

My bag was basically packed. It held a few items of clothing and not much else. A toothbrush. A hairbrush. There was no jewelry or mementos for me to take with me. I was leaving this life as an X-Man behind. X-Men don't kill anyone except evil mutant dictators like Magneto. They certainly don't kill innocent kids.

"Rogue?" A soft voice in my doorway made me freeze as I started to shoulder my bag. The Professor. I should have known he would have seen what I was planning. Damn telepaths.

He chuckled at my unsaid words. "I apologize, Rogue, for reading your mind, but I was concerned about your well-being after what happened with Miss Dane."

"I'm so sorry, Professor," I said automatically. He probably hated me for what I did. He probably _wanted_ me to leave so I wouldn't kill anyone else.

"I most certainly do not," the Professor said, turning serious. "Rogue, you don't have to leave."

"Yes, I do." To my embarrassment, my eyes were filling with tears. "I killed her, Professor."

"You don't know that." His voice was soothing, kind. "It's very unlikely that Miss Dane is dead, Rogue. She is only in a coma right now. She will wake up."

"_You_ don't know _that_," I shot back. "Briana isn't going to wake up. I killed her."

The Professor moved toward me and put a hand on my arm. "Rogue. I highly doubt that you have actually killed Briana Dane."

"And if I did?"

He sighed heavily. "If you did… It was an accident, Rogue, and it wasn't entirely your fault. Someone should have warned you about her mutation. Someone should have warned her about yours. But I am convinced that you did not kill her, and that she will wake up. The other boy, the one you put in a coma before you came here. He woke up, didn't he?"

David. I hadn't thought about him in ages. "Yes," I replied. "After three weeks. And the doctors thought that he would die. Besides, David didn't have a mutation that made my power unstable."

"Rogue, please reconsider what you're doing," he asked. "This isn't a good idea. Miss Dane will be fine, I _assure_ you."

I shouldered my duffel bag. "I'm leaving, Professor," I said firmly. "I can't stay here. Someone might get hurt. I don't think Briana will be fine. In fact, I think she is going to die. You don't understand – in my mind, she is incredibly strong. I took too much of her, Professor. I don't want to leave, trust me. But I have to."

He processed this for a moment. "Very well," he said finally. "I won't stop you, Rogue. You're nineteen. You're old enough to make your own decisions."

I smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Professor. For…" For what? For a home, a family, a purpose in life. For teaching me how to use my power, how to control it. "For everything."

"Of course, Rogue," the Professor said immediately. "And you are always welcome back here. If you ever need anything, just call."

I smiled again, and was starting for the door of my room when his voice stopped me again.

"Are you taking Logan's tags?"

I froze for the second time in about twenty minutes, my hand going up to the tags that still hung faithfully around my neck. Logan was away, on a mission, and I, of course, had been given his tags. I didn't want to give them up, but Logan would probably kill me for taking them. Hell, he'd kill me anyway. Oh, God, he was going to _murder_ me for leaving. I hadn't thought about that.

"Um…" I said, stalling.

"To be honest, Rogue, he'll be so angry at you already that taking the tags won't make much of a difference," the Professor said frankly.

Well, he was right. Logan was going to kill me anyway. "Then I'm taking them, I guess." I hadn't exactly wanted mementos from my time as an X-Man – I was supposed to be starting a new life – but I guess there are the things that you could never leave behind.

"Good luck, Rogue," the Professor said.

"Thank you," I replied, and started for the door again. "Oh!" I turned back toward the Professor. "Tell Logan I'm sorry, and not to look for me."

"There's a good chance he won't listen," he warned me.

I snorted. "There's no way in hell he'll listen. But tell him anyway."

He nodded, and I turned back toward the door. This was it. I was leaving the only place that had taken me in, that had treated me like a normal person even with my power. I had come here because of my mutation, and now I was leaving here because of it. This was it. I wasn't Rogue anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

The beeping of an alarm clock woke me up at the ungodly hour of five in the morning.

Keeping my eyes firmly closed, I yanked the blankets over my eyes and groaned. "Damn it, Charlie. I swear I'm going to throw that clock out the window."

I couldn't see my boyfriend, Charlie Winters smile through the thick material of the blanket, but I knew perfectly well he had an amused grin on his face. Charlie thought that my death threats to his alarm clock were hilarious.

"Sorry, baby," he said. I felt him swing his legs over the side of the bed and tap the off button on the clock. "I've got early meetings."

I pulled the covers down and opened my eyes. It was still dark outside. Who woke up when it was still dark outside? "With your dad?" I asked as I propped my head up on one hand. Charlie's father was Senator Stephen Winters of Tennessee.

Charlie shook his head as he pulled on a crisp white shirt. "No. Johnny wants to discuss some stuff for the company. Dad is coming over for lunch though. Don't forget."

"I won't." I absolutely loved the Senator – for several reasons, not the least of which being that he was very pro-mutant. Of course, Charlie and the Senator didn't _know_ that I was a mutant, but that was completely beyond the point.

I watched as Charlie dressed hurriedly but neatly in a pair of black pants, dress shoes, and a dark red tie. He disappeared into the bathroom for a couple minutes, and then reappeared with his dark hair combed and teeth brushed. "I have to run, okay, Anna?" he said, swooping down to give me a quick kiss. "I should be home by nine-thirty, ten."

"Love you!" I called to his retreating figure as he moved toward the door.

Charlie stopped and favored me with a heart-stopping smile. "Always. Bye, baby." Then he dashed out of the door and disappeared from sight.

I leaned back against the headboard. It was 5:16. Charlie could get ready for a meeting with the President in five minutes. I snorted. Damn all men. It took girls an hour to get ready for the grocery store.

My eyes slowly closed as I catalogued what I had to do today. I would have to go shopping for the lunch, call the pool guy about the filter that had broken _again_, pick up the new medication for Cocoa's ear infection, clean up around the house before the Senator came, and go buy a dress for that fancy dinner the Senator was hosting. That black-and-white one I saw at the Dress Barn a few weeks ago would be perfect. It would go well with my hair.

_Shit_. At that last thought, I froze. It would not go well with my hair. My hair was dark brown, not chestnut, and it most certainly did not have three platinum streaks in it. No, my hair was completely normal now. Except it was still a bitch to comb through in the mornings. But that was beyond the point.

Unconsciously, I reached up and fingered the strands of hair that, under the dark brown dye, had been bleached white by Magneto's machine. Had that really been a decade ago? I couldn't decide if the time between then and now should be longer or shorter. I remembered it like it was yesterday, that much was true, but it was all in my past. That was a lifetime ago. I lived a different life now – a life that didn't involve evil dictators or life-sucking machines or mutants in black leather uniforms.

No, now my life involved luncheons with senators and fancy dinners and a big house in Tennessee. My name was Anna Logan, I was practically engaged to Charlie Winters, and I most definitely was not a mutant with lethal skin.

It had been seven years since I had anything to do with the X-Men. I had ended up going South after my flight, and ended up in Tennessee. Two years after my flight, I had met Charlie Winters, the handsome, dark-haired son of the Tennessee senator. He had fallen in love with the girl whose name was Anna Logan, and eventually, I had fallen in love with him. And so, seven years after my flight from the mansion, here I was, this dark-haired woman named Anna Logan whose experience with mutants came from TV and news. I snorted. As if.

I rolled over in bed to face the window, deciding not to get up for a while. It was five-thirty in the morning, after all. The only way I would be getting out of bed this early was if someone held a gun to my head. Or claws. That had worked several times for Logan when he decided that I needed a five a.m. Danger Room session.

What had happened to Logan in seven years, I wondered? I tried – unsuccessfully, usually – not to think about him, or any of them, a lot. It hurt too much to think of the people I left behind. I missed them all – Jubilee, Storm, Professor X in his weird new body, Hank…even Kitty and Bobby. If Bobby was still alive, that is. Personally, I thought that the only reason Logan hadn't gutted him before I left was because I had asked him not to. Especially after the whole cheating-Bobby debacle… Yeah, there was a good chance Bobby was dead with the cause of death being impaled by adamantium claws. That wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Logan… An unconscious smile graced my face as I thought of him. His tags were tucked away in a false drawer I had found in one of the old desks in a room that was rarely used. I hadn't worn them in a long time. Ever since I decided that I did love Charlie, some four years ago, I had put the tags away. I didn't need reminders of the last man I fell in love with, even if it had been just a teenage crush. The loss of the tags didn't stop me from thinking about Logan, exactly – I generally did it every day, in fact – but they didn't serve as a constant reminder.

With thoughts of Logan, the X-Men, and everything I had once been dancing around my head, I drifted back off to sleep. I would wake up in another couple of hours, maybe. I still had a shitload of stuff to do.

Two hours later, I was up and in my car, headed for the grocery store. My "couple of hours" had been maybe forty-five minutes at best. I had never really been able to go back to sleep after waking up. I had taken a quick, restless nap, and then realized it was futile and just decided to get ready. At the very least, it was light out now.

I ran through my mental checklist for the lunch today quickly. Three kinds of cheese. Crackers. Salad fixings. Dressing. Steaks. Potatoes. Chocolate éclairs for dessert – the Senator's favorite. The menu for this "casual lunch" was fancier than that of a five-star restaurant. And everything on it, of course, would be the best and most costly. This little grocery trip was going to run me more than a full day shopping on Fifth Avenue with Jubilee.

No. No Jubilee. Focus, _Anna_, I told myself harshly. Lunch with the Senator and Charlie. No Jubilee, no Logan, no X-Men. Damn it, I needed to stop thinking about them.

I pulled into a parking space in front of the grocery store and climbed out of the car. At the very least, the grocery store wasn't too crowded on a Saturday at seven in the morning. There was a stroke of good luck for me. If there had been a million people milling about the store, I might have been forced to drain someone.

_No_. No goddamn draining. Shit, what was wrong with me today? Why was it that today, of all days, my mind was suddenly plagued with thoughts of the X-Men?

I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. I wasn't Rogue, I reminded myself firmly. I was Anna Logan, I was dating the son of the Tennessee senator, and I was out grocery shopping for a lunch today. That was all. No draining, no Jubilee, no nothing. Just Anna Logan.

I grabbed a cart and began pushing it slowly up and down the aisles. Expensive gourmet food is extremely hard to find, trust me. I was fully aware that I would be spending about an hour – and a shitload of money – at the grocery store today. I perused the aisles carefully, and my cart slowly began to fill up to the brim. Ordinarily, a shopping trip with nine items on the list wouldn't fill up an entire cart. But today, I had decided to throw in some comfort food – Oreos, Fritos, Ruffles, Chips Ahoy, etc. So I was indulging in some junk food today. Sue me.

"Uh, excuse me?"

I turned at the sound of the voice to find a kid, probably eighteen years old, holding a bag of Doritos. He was pushing his own cart, mostly empty. It held only a couple bottles of water and a loaf of bread.

"You dropped this," he said, holding out the bag as an offering. "It fell from your cart."

"Thanks," I replied, taking a closer look at the kid. He looked skinny – too skinny. His hair was messy and knotted, and he had a smear of dirt on one arm. Was he living on his own or something? He certainly wasn't taking regular showers, or from the look of it, eating regularly either.

I reached out to take the bag from him, and our fingers brushed accidently. A shock ripped through me, and I found myself a second later, stunned, with my cheek pressing into the floor of the grocery store. The kid was bending over me, his face a mask of horror.

"You're a mutant," I said, pulling myself into a sitting position. He could shock people, it looked like. A mutant with control over electricity, maybe, once his power got under control.

The kid looked horrified. "Shit. I am so sorry. It was an accident…"

I pushed myself off the ground, using my cart for balance. I was still a little lightheaded from the shock, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. Hell, I'd almost been hit by lightning during Danger Room sessions before. This kid was pretty powerful, but he wasn't anywhere in Storm's range. "It's no big deal," I said easily. "Like you said, an accident. Trust me, I've had some of those before."

"_You're_ a mutant?" He sounded pretty shocked. To be honest, I felt a little insulted by that. Did I somehow not seem to be the mutant type? Just because I no longer ran around in black leather didn't mean I didn't have mutant potential. Jeez.

Just then, I realized it might not be the best plan to let the kid know who I was. After all, my carefully constructed existence as Anna Logan left no room for any mutants. So I chose to ignore the question. "What's your name?" I asked instead, figuring I'd get the basics. My plan was to send him to the mansion. They could help him.

"Danny Barrett," he replied.

I reached out a hand to shake his. "Nice to meet you, Danny." Instead of shaking it, however, he flinched away.

"Can't," he said, shaking his head. "I can't touch people. I shock them if I do."

I kept my face carefully blank, but inside I felt like I had just been hit by a wrecking ball. Danny couldn't touch people. God, did I know what that was like. He was a runaway too, I would imagine. I could see the similarities between this boy and the sixteen-year-old girl from a decade ago who had been desperate enough to hide in a stranger's trailer.

"Right," I said instead, pulling my hand back. "Well, listen, Danny. There is a place in Westchester, New York. It's called Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but it's actually a school for mutants. They can help you there."

Danny shook his head. "No way. My parents sent me to about a hundred different schools after they found out what I could do. Nothing helped."

"Xavier's is different," I said. "Trust me, they can help."

He looked at me through squinted eyes, obviously trying to decide whether to trust me or not. "How would you know?"

I was going to regret what I was saying next. I just knew it. "I went to school there."

"You?" he scoffed.

I narrowed my eyes. What, did I look too rich and prissy to be an alumna of a mutant school? "For three years," I snapped. "I was sixteen when I got there, nineteen when I left. I learned how to control my mutation there."

"Which is?" he asked.

I was _really_ going to regret this conversation. But to be honest, something about Danny drew me in. He reminded me of me, truthfully. It had been ten years since Logan found me in his trailer, cold and hungry and alone, but I still remembered it. I knew what it was like to be able to hurt someone with a touch, to have "accidents". "Lethal skin," I said finally. "I have poisonous, dangerous, life-sucking lethal skin."

He flinched involuntarily. "But you touched me."

"I told you. I can control it now."

Danny glanced at my bare hands. "This school…" he said slowly. "You've been there before?"

"For three years," I repeated.

His face looked incredibly young and vulnerable suddenly. "Will you…will you go there with me?"

It was time for my mouth to drop open. Go there. Go to the mansion. Go back to Professor X and Storm and Jubilee. Go back to Logan.

The expression on my face must have tipped Danny off, because he started backpedaling quickly. "I'm sorry," he said. "I mean, you must have a life and stuff. You can't just pick everything up for a kid you don't even know. I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," I mumbled. "I…I can't, Danny. I'm sorry. But I…I, uh, can't leave. Sorry."

He nodded glumly. "I shouldn't have asked. Sorry."

"But listen. I can, uh, make a call if you want. The team can come pick you up," I said quickly. "I mean, the teachers. Not the team."

Danny nodded again. "Sure. Thanks, um… What did you say your name was?"

Rogue was on the tip of my tongue. "Uh, Anna," I said.

"Thanks, Anna," he said with a sweet smile.

I managed to return the smile weakly. Now it was time to call the X-Men.


	3. Chapter 3

"I have a cell phone," Danny offered, pulling one out of his back pocket. "You can use it, if you need to."

"Right," I said. With another weak smile, I took the phone from his outstretched hand. "Thanks, Danny."

Now. I had several options. I could call Logan. I still remembered his number. But truth be told, I was a little afraid to call him. I envisioned something along the lines of growling, yelling, day-long Danger Room sessions, and the possibility of being locked up for the rest of my life. I really wouldn't put it past him.

I could always call Jubilee. She could get the Professor to send a plane. Ditto with Bobby, Kitty, Storm, or Pete. But they would _all_ feel it necessary to tell Logan. And that would just not be good. So, my only real option was the Professor – whose cell phone number I didn't actually know. In fact, I wasn't sure he _had_ a cell phone. So, I decided, I would call the school. They could put me through to the Professor. In fact, he'd probably answer the phone.

The school's phone number. What was it? I racked my brains. The Westchester area code was 294, I knew that much. And the phone number…555-2958 sounded right. Or was it 2985? I decided to go with the first one.

My heart was pounding as the phone rang. Once, twice, three times. Someone picked up, and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped.

"Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters," a professional, unfamiliar voice said.

I almost pulled the phone away from my ear to stare at it. Who was this? "Uh, who are you?" I asked bluntly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danny look a little confused. Well, so was I.

"My name is Casey Ellis," the unfamiliar voice said. "May I ask who is calling?"

Casey Ellis…I knew a Casey Ellis. She had been a student at the school .A picture popped into my head of a girl, three years younger than me, with red-gold hair and sky blue eyes. Her mutation was control over the earth, I thought. She would be twenty-three now. Jeez, she was probably an X-Man. "Is the Professor there?" I asked.

"Yes," Casey replied. "May I ask who is calling?"

"Uh…" Did she remember me, I wondered? Briana Dane's death would have been big gossip in the school. And even if it hadn't been, most people knew who I was. The teenage X-Man with the lethal skin and white-streaked hair. "Look, can I just talk to the Professor? It's kind of an emergency."

"I guess so," Casey said slowly. Her hand must have covered the phone, because her voice was now muffled. "Professor? There's a woman on the phone for you. She won't say who she is." I couldn't hear the Professor's brief and muffled reply, but I could hear the phone change hands and the Professor's voice.

"Yes?"

I gripped the phone tighter. "Professor?"

"Yes?" he repeated.

"Um, this is Rogue." I shot a look at Danny, but he didn't seem to hear the name.

"Rogue?" the Professor said, sounding shocked.

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, there's this kid named Danny Barrett. He's eighteen, a runaway, and a mutant. Do you think you could send someone to pick him up and bring him to the school?"

"Of course," the Professor said immediately. "I'll send Storm and Logan right away."

"No!" I almost shouted. Good God, not Logan. Hell, right about now I would take Magneto, Mystique, and the entire army of deranged mutants over Logan. Danny, hearing the shout, turned and looked at me with a confused look in his eyes. I attempted a weak smile for his benefit. "Can you send Storm and…uh, Jubilee instead? And maybe tell them not to tell anyone else?" Like Logan. For example.

I could feel the Professor smiling through the phone. "Of course. Where are you?"

Of course they would need to know where we were. Shit, I hadn't thought about that part. "Um…the address is 170 Blackwell Drive, Kinsley, Tennessee," I said, giving him Charlie's address. "The backyard is big enough to land the jet in." It was, too. The backyard was _huge_.

"170 Blackwell Drive, Kinsley, Tennessee," the Professor repeated. "Storm and Jubilee will be there shortly to pick you up."

To pick _you_ up? "No, no, see, the pick-up is just for Danny," I clarified. "Not me."

"Rogue, you are welcome here," he said.

Yeah, right. "What about Briana Dane?"

A sigh crackled over the phone. "Rogue, Briana Dane was fine. She didn't die."

This time, I actually did pull the phone away from my ear and stare at it. "Uh…_what_?"

"Briana Dane didn't die. She was in a coma for several days, but she didn't die."

I was doing a very good impression of a fish right about then. "Well, someone could have _mentioned_ that to me!" I snapped.

I was almost positive I heard some form of muffled laughter from the other end of the phone. "I apologize, Rogue," he said calmly. "But you explicitly asked us not to look for you."

Damn. All. X-Men. To. Hell. "Right," I said through gritted teeth. "So, um, about this whole pick-up thing."

"Will you be coming?" he inquired.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Excellent. Goodbye, Rogue. Storm and Jubilee will be there soon."

Awesome. "Bye." I snapped the phone shut. "Danny," I said. "Change of plans. I'm coming with you."

I was going back. Holy _shit_, I was going back.

* * *

I was in the car with Danny, on my way back to the house. The jet wouldn't take that long to get here – maybe twenty minutes at most. It flew at the freaking speed of light. It was about 9:10 right now. And Charlie was going to be home in twenty minutes. Meaning he would arrive around the same time that a big black jet was landing in his backyard. Damn. I should have thought that one through before I invited Storm and Jubes to land the jet in the backyard. I actually should have thought a lot of things through. That should be my New Year's Resolution. Too bad it was March.

"Uh…Anna?"

Turning my head to look at Danny, I noticed he seemed confused and more than a little freaked out. Hell, I would be too. "Actually, Danny, would you mind calling me Rogue?"

"Rogue?" he asked. He looked even more confused than before. I couldn't really blame him. "What kind of name is Rogue?"

The steering wheel jerked in my hands, almost sending Danny, me, and the car flying off the road. Good fucking Lord. Did he have to say that? I gripped the steering wheel tightly and straightened out the car. _Do not think of Logan. Do not think of Logan._ "Sorry about that," I said breezily. "Just a little accident."

Danny was clutching the car door. "We almost drove off the road!"

"Yeah, well, it happens," I snapped. _God._ All people ever do is complain about my driving. Logan didn't allow me within ten feet of his bike unless he was with me, I was never designated driver, and Storm refused to let me even attempt to drive the plane. They're idiots, all of them. I was an _excellent_ driver.

"But, um, anyway. Rogue is a mutant name," I explained. "You'll get one, probably. They're code names...for missions and stuff."

"Missions? We go on missions?"

How did I explain this one? "Not you. Not the students." Except me. And Bobby, and Kitty, and Jubilee, and Pete... "Well, not most of the students, anyway. It's the teachers that go on missions mostly."

"What kind of missions?" Danny asked.

The kind of missions where you must save the world from diabolical metal-heads and crazy psycho ex-friends of yours who were once dead. Those kinds of missions. "Just...picking up kids with mutant powers, mostly. Bringing them to the school."

Danny nodded, satisfied. "Cool. So the teachers have powers?"

"Yeah."

"What kind of powers?" he persisted.

"Um...let's see. Ororo Munroe...she goes by Storm...she controls the weather. Hank McCoy, also known as the Beast, is blue and furry and super strong. He's the doctor. Professor X is a telepath. Jubilation Lee goes by Wondra sometimes, and she can create fireworks called paffs. Bobby Drake, or Iceman, controls ice. There's a lot of powers." And in case anyone was wondering, I did _not_ leave Logan out on purpose. His name simply did not come up.

"Cool. Are you going to be a teacher?"

I opened my mouth to answer, and then realized I didn't actually have an answer to that. The adult X-Men were all teachers. Even Logan, who God knows was the complete opposite of Mr. Settle-Down-Live-In-One-Place-Deal-With-Teenage-Kids-Voluntarily, taught self-defense. In my personal opinion, it was because he liked beating things up, but the point was that he was a teacher. I suppose that I would be too, if I was going back. "Um…I guess so."

"What will you teach?" Danny asked.

Another question I didn't know the answer too. Luckily, I was spared answering by pulling up in front of the house. Charlie's car was in the driveway. I glanced at the clock on the dashboard. It was only 9:22. He was early. Damn it. I was really hoping to put this off…for maybe a year or two.

"Look, Danny, would you mind staying in the car for, like, ten minutes or so? I just have to run in and have a quick discussion with someone, and then our ride will be here."

"Our ride?" Danny asked. "Aren't we driving there?"

I grinned. "Not exactly."

"Charlie!" I yelled, barging into the house. He wasn't in the entryway or the living room. Ditto with his office on the first floor – the door was open and I could see inside. Charlie was probably in the kitchen, waiting for me to come home with the groceries so he could help with cooking. He was considerate like that. Too bad I didn't actually have any groceries with me.

I was right. He was sitting at the kitchen counter, a mug of coffee in his hand, reading over a sheaf of papers. Charlie looked up, a ready smile on his face, when I came in. The smile fell when he realized I wasn't carrying any grocery bags.

"Anna? Are the groceries out in the car?" he asked, standing up.

I rubbed my hands together and mentally prepared myself for this. "Charlie, we need to talk," I said. "I haven't been honest with you about something, and I have to tell you." I took a deep breath. "See, I'm actually an undercover agent working for the CIA. We started having suspicions about someone in your father's staff almost eight years ago. They sent me in to investigate. I went very deep undercover. I had to pretend to be someone else entirely. We had cleared up the suspicions related to the person in your father's staff about five years ago, but after threatening messages were being sent to your father's office in Washington, D.C., I was told to stay undercover and protect him. We've finally uncovered the person behind the threats, and it's time for me to leave now. They're sending a jet to pick me up and bring me back right now. I'm sorry."

A good, kind person might have told him the _real_ truth. But no one ever said I was good or kind. And besides, he might have tried to find me if he knew where I really was going. Lies were the best way to go. Tell the truth? Hell no. That concept was for, like, Amish people. Lie. That's my motto.

Charlie looked dumbstruck. "Anna…this isn't funny."

"Not supposed to be," I said. That was also a lie. Jubilee would find this very funny. And speaking of Jubilee…the Blackbird was coasting to a silent stop in the backyard. I could see a splotch of brilliant yellow in the shotgun seat. God, I had missed Jubilee. "Look."

Charlie turned, and his mouth dropped open at the sight of the jet. It was a pretty intense sight. You could tell it was expensive and fancy and badass just by looking at it. "Anna…" he said.

"I just have to get one thing, Charlie," I said. "And then it's time for me to go. I'll be right back."

Leaving him sitting at the kitchen table, his mouth still open in shock, I sprinted up the steps and into one of the unused bedrooms. I pulled out the second drawer from the top, popped out the false bottom, and snatched up the tags that were laying there. I pulled them over my head and tucked them into my shirt, and then raced back downstairs. Charlie was still sitting in the same position I had left him.

"Bye, Charlie," I said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Then I ran out the front door and down the steps. Danny was still sitting in the car where I had left him. I motioned for him to follow me, and he did. We went through the gate into the backyard, where the jet was waiting. Danny's mouth fell open.

"We're going to the school on _this_?"

I nodded, and the ramp to get into the jet opened up. I finally let a brilliant smile spread across my face.

Goodbye, Anna Logan. Welcome back, Rogue.


End file.
